Social Media and the Small or Medium Sized Business Owner

The history of attracting new customers for the small and medium business(SMB) owner has changed dramatically over the last 5 years and Social Media is the new must-do for any SMB.  As a SMB owner there is no better marketing scenario than advertising to an audience who are actually looking for your business.  A scenario like that, usually means you will be getting the best penetration rate and the highest ROI.  Through Social Media you are essentially building that exact scenario by creating an audience of people who have chosen to "follow" or "like" you.

In marketing there are two basic forms; directional and creative.  The majority of marketing is creative:  TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, flyers, buses, benches etc...  All fundamentally are the business looking for the customer.  Directional was for a long time mostly confined to directories and classifieds; the customer looking for the business.  Social Media has essentially redefined marketing, in that it is, the best of both worlds, creative and directional.  Using platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Blogs, small business now have the opportunity to build their brand(creative) and advertise to an audience who has needed/will need their services(directional).      

When designing a Social Media campaign there are many avenues to consider and correct/incorrect ways of using the various Social Media platforms.  Over the next couple of weeks Carlyn Services Inc. will take a look at some of the various platforms available and how to correctly use them in a series of blog posts, right here.  As a homework assignment, see if you can identify all of the buttons below.


Picture From:  http://www.gamerwok.com/main/tag/social-media